Lesson #6 From Scaling & Selling A Business To Walmart: Increasing Operational Speed

In today’s increasingly competitive landscape, operational speed isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a core differentiator. The ability to move quickly, make decisions faster, and out-execute competitors is often what separates market leaders from the rest. Drawing from my experience scaling MeMD and selling that business to Walmart as well as other companies I have led, I’ve seen firsthand how accelerating communication, setting clear targets, fostering trust, and building a culture of accountability can dramatically improve both speed and performance.

Common Mistakes CEOs Make That Limit Operational Speed

• Bottlenecking Decisions at the Top – I have seen this at many companies I have worked with as a coach and consultant, as well as I have personally been the bottleneck at times in companies I have run.  When CEOs insist on making every decision or fail to delegate, they become the primary source of organizational drag. This not only slows execution but signals to the team that speed is not a priority.  Additionally, if more decision rights aren’t delegated, team morale suffers because employees are not given the autonomy to make decisions.  As we learned in a previous article I wrote on Self Determination Theory, autonomy is one of the three critical pillars of sustained passion – without autonomy, passion, engagement and performance all decline.
• Failing to Set Clear, Prioritized Targets – Without a handful of crystal-clear priorities and metrics, teams get bogged down in ambiguity and low-impact work.  In every organization I have come into, there are a lot of KPIs and initiatives already in place, however quite often these KPIs and initiatives are numerous and usually don’t tie to what is most important for the business.  At MeMD, within a couple of months of my arrival we got laser-focused on the most critical initiatives we needed to complete to start the new year (just four months away) on the right foot, and we put in a handful of KPIs to keep score on those initiatives.  Everything else was put on the backburner.  As a result, we executed exceptionally well against those initiatives.
• Tolerating Poor Communication and Siloes – I don’t care if your company is 5, 50, 500 or 5,000 people, all sizes of organizations struggle with poor communication and siloed operating behaviors.  Poor communication all starts with the leadership team, and every leadership team must improve before they can even look at improving it across the company.  When communication speed and quality is substandard, which it is in many companies, company performance and individual employee engagement suffers.
• Allowing Unhealthy Leadership Dynamics – In my view, every single leadership team is dysfunctional, including all the ones I have led.  The question is not whether your team is dysfunctional or not, the question is to what extent is your team dysfunctional?   Personality clashes, unsettled past conflicts, communication style differences, and varying levels of leadership experience and maturity impact leadership team dynamics.  I can recall a specific time at every team I took over, that within the first 30 to 60 days, I had to call two leaders into a room and a) tell them to knock it off, b) dig down to see what the source of the conflict was, and c) force them to get to know each other better via coffees or lunches.  Often, the source of the dysfunction is people just don’t know each other well enough.  That absence of connection leads to a lack of vulnerability-based trust and in turn ego-driven debates, guarded conversations, and unresolved conflict. This dysfunction, if not improved, slows decision-making and erodes operational pace.
• Chasing Too Many Initiatives -Trying to do everything at once, rather than focusing on a few key priorities, dilutes resources and attention, making it impossible to move quickly or achieve excellence in any one area.  CEOs are often the source of too many initiatives, and I have been guilty of this at times as well.  Shiny object syndrome, inability to say no, and stretching to find new sources of revenue and profitability contribute to having too many initiatives.

Best Practices for CEOs to Accelerate Operational Speed

• Build Vulnerability-Based Trust on the Leadership Team – Operational speed improvements all start here. Patrick Lencioni’s work on team health underscores the importance of trust rooted in vulnerability. Healthy conflict, buy in, accountability and performance all suffer if a team isn’t grounded in vulnerability-based trust.  Your job as CEO is to encourage open, ego-free debate and ensure every leader feels safe to challenge, question, and admit mistakes. And, this will never get off the ground if you don’t first and continually model it correctly. No company moves fast if leaders are walking on eggshells.  I highly suggest you read or reread Patrick Lencioni’s book “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.”  In fact, have your leadership team read it and in turn have a few open discussions as a team about how to improve the level of vulnerability-based trust.
• Set Clear, Cascading Priorities and Metrics – Most companies either have KPIs or OKRs, however as mentioned previously, many of those metrics and associated initiatives aren’t aligned with where you want the organization to go.  It all starts with the leadership team – identify the top 3-5 initiatives that drive your most important number, and assign different people from the leadership team to be accountable for each one.  One that is decided, cascade KPIs/OKRs and initiatives down to the next level and so on, so that everything is aligned correctly.  This will ensure every team and individual knows what matters most, and how their work ties into those priorities. Use weekly executive meetings to review progress and clear roadblocks.
• Foster Radical Transparency and Fast Communication – Make information accessible at all levels. I get there is some hesitation by leaders to show bottom line financial performance, but the greater degree of transparency you can provide, the better engagement you will get from your team.  Additionally, it is important to create two effective communication streams – one for employee feedback and one for customer feedback.  I am not talking about standard engagement surveys or routine NPS scores.  Those are nice, but not super-actionable.  I am talking about detailed weekly discussions with both employees and customers and ensuring that communication flows up and down the organization. Lastly,  hold regular, structured meetings (daily standups, weekly exec check-ins) to surface issues quickly and keep everyone aligned, as well as use dashboards and scoreboards where applicable to track key metrics—visible to everyone, not just leadership.
• Institutionalize Accountability and Coaching – High speed requires high accountability. Assign owners to each priority, set clear deadlines, and regularly review performance. And, it is important to ensure only one person is ultimately accountable for any initiative or function.  If two are accountable, then no one is. And if no one is accountable, then things get dropped.  Once accountability is clearly set up, pair it with positive praise, recognition, and coaching to motivate teams and reinforce a bias for action.
• Eliminate Bottlenecks and Standardize Processes – Make it a habit to conduct regular process audits to identify and remove bottlenecks, whether they’re in workflows, decision-making, or resource allocation.  With the companies I coach, I work with them to reevaluate 1-2 processes in detail each quarter and work through the following questions:  Do we still need this?  Are we measuring the right KPIs? Do we have the right accountability?  Can we tie this process to measurable financial impact?  These are all questions that need to be answered when looking and relooking at processes.

Out-Executing the Competition

A culture that values speed must be modeled from the top. Celebrate quick wins, reward decisive action, and make it clear that moving fast is the expectation, not the exception. As Verne Harnish called out in his book Scaling Up, “Speed is a habit. If you want to move faster, you must create the expectation and the environment for speed—every day, at every level.”  In a world where markets shift overnight and disruption is constant, operational speed is a CEO’s secret weapon. It’s not about working harder—it’s about building the systems, culture, and trust that enable your company to move, decide, and deliver faster than anyone else.

For additional resources and information on services available to help scale your business more rapidly, visit Bill Goodwin, MBA or Growth Optimized